Abstract

This research examined newspaper framing of the rise and fall of the RUGA Programme, a rural settlement initiative of the Federal Government of Nigeria where farmers and cattle herders will be accommodated in an organized place with basic amenities such as schools, hospitals, road networks, veterinary clinics, markets and manufacturing entities that will process and add value to meats and animal products and solve the long standing problem of farmer/herder crises. The work was informed by the controversies surrounding the launching and suspension of the programme where contents of four national newspapers along regional divide: Daily Trust and Leadership (North); and The Guardian and Punch newspapers (South) were analysed to reveal the framing of the RUGA programme. The study was anchored on the Framing theory and used content analysis to carry out a census of the four selected newspapers within the period of the introduction and suspension of the programme. The findings of this work revealed a very low but positive framing of the RUGA programme by the northern newspapers but a predominantly higher and negative framing of the RUGA programme by the southern newspapers. The research also revealed that the selected newspapers emphasized the political angle of the RUGA programme under episodic frames which did not provide the necessary background information and context. This study recommends that newspapers should step up their coverage of important national development programmes such as the RUGA issue, use more thematic frames in order to give their audience the much needed background and context, eschew regional sentiments and emphasize the benefits of government programmes and policies to encourage public acceptance.

Keywords: Framing, RUGA, Media, Programme, Newspapers